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by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic [43]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Bugs & Insects, Friendship, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 13:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6240892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic for Album Titles prompt: <i>any, any, BADLANDS (Halsey)</i></p><p>In which Rodney has a bad reaction to a bug bite, John helps keep him alive, and there is much holding of hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





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“Why is there no shade?” Rodney whined. “Do we know how much radiation is in the air right now? Did anyone check the readings?”

“That would be you, Mr. Spock,” Sheppard replied.

Rodney didn’t know how the Colonel could still look so put-together. Yes, there was sweat beading on his forehead and neck, but compared to Rodney he might as well have been in a tuxedo with a martini in his hand.

The black uniform was bad enough, but the extra bulk of the tac vest was practically a sweat-production device. If he’d been able to Rodney would’ve stripped everything off. He could only imagine how well that would go over with whoever was living on this God-forsaken moon being cooked by twin suns.

The landscape was beautiful but barren – miles of sun-bleached grasses with jagged mountain peaks delineating the far-distant horizon. Sheppard had remarked that it reminded him of the Badlands, which he’d visited once, but why anyone would go to such a hot, miserable place was beyond Rodney’s understanding. He hadn’t seen anything alive, save for one spindly-legged bird and the thousands of buzzing insects that were seemingly flying in formation only around his own head.

“What are these things, bees? Probably going to get stung to death.” Rodney waved his hand, shooing the bugs away.

“Are you allergic?” Even the normally imperturbable Teyla was visibly wilting in the heat. 

“I don’t know. Probably. I’ve never been stung before.” 

Sheppard held up his hand and everyone stopped walking. “Epi-pen check.”

Rodney opened the pocket on his tac vest that held his epi-pen, which he never traveled offworld without. He knew that Sheppard carried one too, but what surprised him was to find that both Teyla and Ronon also produced them.

“Since when do you _all_ carry these?” he asked.

“Can’t be too careful,” Ronon replied.

It was strange, being so cared for, and Rodney let himself bask in the feeling for just a second or two before Sheppard had everyone underway again. Life in the Pegasus galaxy was full of unexpected things, and finding himself part of such a cohesive team was top on the list.

“You should think about carrying sunblock, too,” Rodney said as they walked. “Especially for places like this.”

“Not a medical necessity, McKay.”

“Tell me that when your skin starts sloughing off and you look like a leper,” he shot back. He’d already greased up, before they even went through the Gate. Rodney had pale, sensitive skin that was prone to burns and he wasn’t taking any chances. His homemade recipe was much stronger than anything that could be purchased commercially, and it was hypoallergenic as well. If he ever returned to Earth he thought he might market it.

The back of John’s neck was already turning pink and Rodney itched to put some lotion on it. Intellectually he knew that the Colonel was a grown man and perfectly capable of making his own decisions, but somewhere along the line Rodney had developed a protective streak that was, quite frankly, inconvenient. Sheppard was a risk-taker who seemed to value his own life very little, and trying to keep him out of trouble could be a full-time job.

It was another half hour of walking through the shimmering curtain of heat before Rodney demanded a break. “Too hot,” he gasped, gulping from his canteen.

“Hey, easy with that.” Sheppard pulled it away. “There’s no place to get refills.”

“How much farther is it?” Teyla asked. Her Athosian-made outfit was much more breathable than what Rodney had on, but even she was looking wrung out. 

Rodney pulled out the LSD, which he’d upgraded to detect specific energy readings and mineral deposits; Sheppard jokingly called it his tricorder. “Another three or four miles. There can’t possibly be anything there to make this trek worthwhile.”

He sat down on a large boulder and attempted to fan himself with the LSD. Ronon squatted at his feet in a pose Rodney would’ve been hard-pressed to maintain for longer than ten seconds.

“I’m with McKay,” the big guy said. “We either come back at night or bring a ‘jumper.”

“We would’ve if we could’ve,” Sheppard said irritably.

“One drone and problem solved.”

Rodney nodded his agreement. There was a structure built just outside the splash zone of the Gate, in all likelihood erected to repel aerial assault from Wraith darts. Elizabeth didn’t want it destroyed in case it carried some cultural significance but Rodney couldn’t have cared less about how significant it was. He’d bet Elizabeth wouldn’t either if she was forced to hike in the blistering heat. Then she wouldn’t be so –

“Ouch!” Rodney hopped off the boulder, cursing and holding his left hand to his chest.

“What now?” Sheppard asked with barely concealed exasperation.

“Something bit me!” Rodney held out his hand, where a small but visible insect bite was slowly turning red and swollen. “It looks like a miniature vampire bit me!”

“Perfect.” Sheppard sighed. “I’m officially bagging this mission. Let’s get back to the Gate.”

Teyla held Rodney’s hand and gave his injury a cursory examination. “Is it painful?

“No. Actually, it’s already hurting less.” He couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. 

“And you do not feel any breathing constrictions?”

Rodney took a couple of deep breaths before shaking his head. “No.”

“Then you’ll live till Beckett can take a look,” Sheppard said. Rodney thought he looked a little relieved but he morphed back into Colonel mode too quickly.

Teyla released his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. Rodney decided to be gracious about the whole thing and not make a big fuss just to push Sheppard’s buttons. They were heading back to Atlantis, which is all he’d wanted anyway. They were ill-suited to tackle M4K-14T and could always return later with a better plan and equipment suited to the heat.

They began the long walk back, Rodney too preoccupied by the sweat running into his eyes to pay much more attention to his insect-induced injury. At least until he realized that he couldn’t feel his left arm or the left side of his chest.

“Wait!” he called out, instantly panicking.

“McKay,” Sheppard said. He was clearly overheated as well, his patience level at an all-time low.

“No, seriously. I think I’m having a reverse heart-attack!” Rodney grabbed his numb hand with the one that wasn’t and shook it. “I can’t feel anything!”

“What?” Sheppard shed his calm and collected team-leader persona in an instant. “What do you mean you can’t feel anything?”

“What do you _think_ I mean? Do I need to draw you a diagram? I can’t feel my arm. I can’t even move it!”

“The bite,” Teyla said, pointing. “It would appear to be more harmful than we first thought.”

Rodney was suddenly glad he couldn’t feel it. The whole area around the bite had turned purple and all the little veins were highlighted a very dark blue. “Not good. Very not good.”

“Perhaps we should try the epi-pen?” Teyla suggested. She had hers out and primed before Rodney could even start fumbling at his own vest pockets.

He gave her a shaky nod, and she stabbed the pen into his thigh. It seemed like everyone held their breaths, waiting, but after five minutes there was absolutely no improvement. If anything, the numbness was spreading.

Rodney turned frightened eyes on Sheppard, who nodded curtly. “Double time it, let’s go.” He pushed them all into a trot and Rodney didn’t bother suggesting that maybe getting his heart moving bug venom around more quickly wasn’t the best idea; he didn’t want to die on this stupid overheated moon.

When Rodney’s left leg crumpled beneath him with all the feeling of a phantom limb he wasn’t the only one who panicked. Teyla immediately stripped off her tac vest and tossed it to Sheppard. 

“I will run ahead and dial Atlantis.”

Rodney might’ve made a comment about gazelles if he’d been in a better frame of mind. His whole left side was numb, and the insect bite looked like something out of a horror movie.

“Do you think it laid eggs in me? Maybe I have a million little baby bugs in there right now, eating me from the inside! Oh, God!” Even his own words sounded strange, and he felt his face with his right hand. His mouth was drooping down on the left side, like he’d had a stroke.

“McKay, you need to calm down.” Sheppard cupped Rodney’s face in his hands, looked him right in the eye. “We’ll get you back and Carson will fix whatever this is.”

But Rodney could tell he was lying. Saw the panic and fear hiding just under the surface, and wasn’t it funny that he knew Sheppard so well? He was mostly oblivious to other people and their feelings, but Sheppard he could read like a book.

“Liar,” Rodney whispered.

Sheppard closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Rodney’s. “I won’t let you die out here,” he said just as softly.

The next thing Rodney knew, Sheppard was pulling him into a fireman’s carry and walking as fast as the extra weight would allow. Rodney sputtered at him, inexplicably embarrassed at being carried, but there was nothing he could do but hold on, his good hand clutching at Sheppard’s tac vest. Ronon hung back, watching for trouble with Teyla’s discarded vest slung over one arm.

Rodney continued to lose feeling as the paralysis spread, until all he had left was the warmth of Sheppard’s chest against his curled fingers. It was terrifying, worse even than anaphylactic shock because at least for that there was epinephrine, there were measures to take that would save his life. And even though he couldn’t feel it, he tried to take comfort from Sheppard’s closeness. At least he wasn’t alone.

“There,” Ronon said. The stone structure that stood in front of the Gate glimmered on the horizon.

“We’re almost there,” Sheppard panted. “You still with me, McKay?”

“Can’t…breathe…”

Rodney’s view changed instantly, disorienting him, and he didn’t immediately understand why he could suddenly see Sheppard’s face. He was too preoccupied with trying to pull in air, but all he was doing was choking on it, choking, and he couldn’t even reach for Sheppard’s hand, or feel if Sheppard already had hold of him, and he was going to die out here in Pegasus’ version of the Badlands, it had been so stupid to worry about radiation, and he really didn’t want to die, not like this.

“Come on, Rodney,” Sheppard said frantically. “Don’t quit on me now!”

Rodney’s vision narrowed to a pinpoint, and the last thing he saw was Sheppard’s pointy elf ear, reddened from the sun.

*o*o*o*

_“What are we doing?” Rodney asked, breathless._

_“You’re the genius. You tell me.”_

_Rodney pressed in for another kiss, his hands curled in Sheppard’s unruly hair. It was everything and nothing he’d imagined, and he’d devoted plenty of brainpower to the topic over the last year._

_“I didn’t know,” he said when Sheppard pulled back to press nipping kisses along Rodney’s jawline. “Why didn’t you tell me?”_

_“Too risky.” Sheppard ran his tongue around the shell of Rodney’s ear. “Too many ways it could go wrong.”_

_“So what changed?” And really, why couldn’t he stop talking? There was an ache low in his belly and there were so many more things he could be doing with his mouth._

_“You died.”_

_And just like that Rodney remembered everything: the insect bite, the spreading paralysis, fighting for his last gasp of air out in the middle of sun-baked nowhere. He tried to lift his hand, to look at the bite, but found he couldn’t move. Not his arm, his legs, nothing. Sheppard continued to touch him, to kiss him, but Rodney couldn’t feel it anymore._

_“Wait, stop. I can’t…Sheppard, am I dead?”_

_“Don’t worry,” Sheppard replied with a nonchalant shrug. “You’re fine. You just need to –”_

“…wake up,” someone said. “You need the rest.”

“Thanks, Marie. But I’m fine.”

Sheppard. Rodney struggled to make sense of his surroundings, and it was a long minute before he realized he was in the infirmary. The hushed sounds, the beeping heart monitor, it was all depressingly familiar.

It took several more minutes for him to realize that he could feel someone holding his hand, and his eyes, which he hadn’t drummed up the energy to open, filled with tears. Sheppard had kept his promise.

“Hey. You back with us, McKay?”

Rodney squeezed Sheppard’s hand – and it had to be his, there was no-one else there – so glad he could feel it when Sheppard squeezed back. He blinked his eyes open, embarrassed at the tears that slid down toward his ears.

Sheppard looked like hell. His face was drawn and covered in a layer of stubble, and he looked tired. Really tired. But he still grinned at Rodney from his seat next to the bed.

“Nice to see you, buddy.”

Rodney tried to respond but his throat was so dry that the only thing that came out was a raspy wheeze. Sheppard tried to let go of his hand to grab the water on the nearby tray, but Rodney just held on tighter. 

“Okay. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.” 

Sheppard was true to his word. He sat next to the bed and held Rodney’s hand, even when Marie came to check on them, and Carson too. Rodney finally got to have that water, which tasted like liquid heaven, and he heard all about how Sheppard was the only reason he was still alive.

“If he hadn’t kept rescue breathing for you, you’d never have made it back in time,” Carson said cheerfully as he pulled back the bandage to check the insect bite. It was still red and inflamed, but all the scary spiderweb veins were gone. “Now if only we could get the Colonel to get some sleep.”

It was just Rodney’s luck that the first time he got to lock lips with Sheppard, he was out cold. 

The Colonel kept his head down during Carson’s informative chatter, one hand rubbing the back of his neck (which Rodney noticed was as burnt as his ears, he really should’ve used the sunblock), but he kept hold of Rodney’s hand despite how uncomfortable he so obviously was.

“Thanks,” Rodney said once Carson finally left. “But Carson’s right. You look like crap. You should get some sleep.”

He was having a hard time keeping his own eyes open, which was ridiculous since he’d been unconscious for almost four days.

“I’m cool,” Sheppard said. “You go ahead and get some sleep.”

Rodney didn’t argue. He thought about that weird dream he’d had, which possibly wasn’t that weird after all. Maybe, when he was feeling better, he might see about making it a reality.

When Rodney drifted off to sleep, it was with a smile on his face and Sheppard still holding his hand.


End file.
